By Brandon Simmons
Tua Good to Be True
Tua Tagovailoa has been one of the NFL’s biggest surprises early in the season. The Miami Dolphins quarterback has been impressive while leading his team to a 3-0 start, including a comeback performance against the Baltimore Ravens in which he orchestrated a 28-3 comeback in the 4th quarter. In that game, he had a career high 469 yards and 6 touchdowns. Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, Tua followed up with a more subtle performance but came up with the victory anyway.
After these past couple of games, the narrative around Tua has certainly taken a shift. Before this season, there was a lot of doubt. People did not believe he could stay healthy long enough to stay consistently good. Last season, he played in only 12 games due to injury. However, in each of his previous 2 seasons, he has finished with a winning record; but just no playoff trip to show for it. Tua is playing some great football right now, and everyone is giving him praise for it, but it should not be lost this is a long season. Not to mention, he got hurt in the game Sunday and could miss this Thursday’s game. It’s an unfortunate thing when people are getting behind that this happens, but it’s also a caution of what might be holding him back from convincing people he is that guy.
Who is the Real Deal
There are a quite a few teams who missed the playoff last year that look strong coming out the gates this season. Teams such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants are all sitting at 2-1 while the Miami Dolphins are at 3-0 When non-playoff teams from the previous season start showing up near the top of the league, fans get curious about how who can remain there. But they’re only fascinated about teams that have weak schedules, since the aforementioned squads are playing competition partly based on their records from last year. You also factor in that a few of these teams boosted some of their rosters.
With all that said, none of these teams are real because it’s still so early. This week Miami is the darling pick after their upset win but who’s to say what they will be next week? They caught a very good Buffalo team slipping but they will have to do it again in December, during playoff hunt season. The Dolphins also must face the Cincinatti Bengals this Thursday, who just got their first win and could be on track getting back to who they were last season. But they might have to do it without Tua, who got hurt in Sunday’s win. The bottom line is that obstacles have yet to come to start the “who’s real” conversation around these “new winners”. Just give them a few more weeks to maintain a high level of play and then it can be discussed.
Pro Bowl Getting Revamped
The NFL is getting rid of the current Pro Bowl format and bringing us the Pro Bowl games. The new form of the Pro Bowl is now a week long skills competition which ends with a flag football game. It is about damn time that they did something with this game. In recent years, they have tried different things including moving locations and changing how the teams are constructed. However, those adjustments could not stop the barrage of complaints of the Pro Bowl being boring and barely any tackling happening.
Now this current format seems to answer those concerns. Skills competitions are more exciting because they show off the individual talents of your favorite player and can engage fans in their own personal arguments. It might be far fetched to consider having a one handed catch contest, but a lot of wide receivers are incorporating it in their game and it would probably be on the level of anticipation such as MLB’s home run derby or NBA dunk contest. Think of a deep ball competition where debates can be started – or settled – on who has the strongest arm. Having a flag football game has probably been long overdue. Players have skipped the old format due to injury concerns and this reduces that risk. Besides, if the players who chose to participate in recent contests are barely tackling, then just take it out. No sense of having that in if deep down, the players have no desire to tackle.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to the Miami Dolphins tailgate, which appeared to have had a very lit time. A video circulated Twitter which two women twerking while money was thrown; even got a Buffalo Bills fan involved in the action. Now, it is easy to call these women strippers, but in the era of political correctness and lawsuits, let’s just leave it at “women twerking while money was thrown” and live to post another day.
Shut out to the Miami Dolphins for creating the “butt punt”. Sunday against the Bills, Dolphins punter Thomas Moorstead punted the ball from deep in the Miami endzone, but it hit center Trent Sherfield in his “endzone”, ricocheting the football and causing a safety. Despite the random mishap, the Dolphins managed to hold on and beat the Bills.
Shout out to Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Ceedee Lamb for his one-handed grab against the New York Giants. With the score tied at 13, the Cowboys were at the 1 yard line as QB Cooper Rush tossed the ball to Lamb who made an effortless one handed grab. Ironically, this might have been the first one handed catch in the Giants’ stadium since former NYG receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. did it in 2014 against the Dallas Cowboys in a primetime matchup.
Shut out to tablets on the sidelines. Last week, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady reportedly broke 2 tablets due to frustration during the game against the New Orleans Saints. This week, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey slammed his tablet on his desk soon as the whistle sounded on Buffalo’s loss. The crazy part is the league reportedly sent a memo heading into the weekend that players would face fines if they broke tablets or other equipment. Might have to include coaches now.
Almost a quarter of the season has wrapped up and we’re in for huge clashes for Week 4. The Kansas City Chiefs visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday night, with it possibly being the last time we see Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Bucs QB Tom Brady face each other. However, earlier in the day will be a clash of two MVP candidates when the Buffalo Bills visit the Baltimore Ravens. Bills QB Josh Allen and Ravens QB Lamar Jackson are going to duel it out. Both teams are 2-1 and their signal callers are balling out of control. The Bills have the better defense, but they have yet to face a quarterback of Jackson’s caliber. That will be the matchup to watch but until then…I’ll holla.